42 
House & Garden 
KETTLES, POTS AND PANS 
JVhat the Housewife Should Know About Cooking Equipment Before She 
Buys—IIow to Keep Utensils in Good Condition 
EVA NAGEL WOLF 
I N selecting pots, pans and kettles for the 
kitchen, the housewife must be guided 
first by the number in her family, for this de¬ 
termines the size of the utensils. Their mode 
of living will determine the number and kinds. 
For people who have little time to spend on 
cooking, the utensils selected will be those 
designed for the shorter processes. 
When there is no limit as to price or time, 
there are countless articles to be had. 
In any case the housewife should consider 
quality, shape, construction, lips, handles, 
covers and, last but certainly not least, the 
ease of cleaning her kitchen utensils. 
No one material is suitable for all cooking 
processes, despite the fact that a kitchen fur¬ 
nished throughout in white enamel or shining 
aluminum or beautiful copper is more pic¬ 
turesque. 
Heat and Shape 
Next come boiling, steaming and stewing, 
where less heat is required, for the heat is 
applied by means of boiling water. 
Frying and sauteing call for the most in¬ 
tense heat of all, since they consist in the use 
of boiling fat. 
Utensil Materials 
The materials most used for kitchen ware 
are iron and steel, enamel, tin and aluminum. 
Iron has been largely replaced by other 
materials, but iron kettles, pots and pans, 
skillets, griddles, waffle irons and ham boil¬ 
ers are still in use, despite their heaviness. 
For the oven, there are Dutch ovens, roasting 
pans and muffin pans. In steel, quite modern 
kitchens display such articles as frying pan, 
frying kettle, skillet, griddle, roasting pan and 
bread pans. Frying kettles are particularly 
appropriate in this material, for they will en¬ 
dure great heat. Griddles and waftle irons 
improve with age, for they become smoother 
with use. 
Probably the most popular of all materials 
is enamel. One reason is that it is not ex¬ 
pensive and it is attractive in appearance and 
easy to clean. Many housekeepers prefer it 
because they feel that pots and pans ruined by 
careless servants can be replaced with little 
cost if they are of enamel. Real economy lies, 
however, in better materials and greater care 
in their use. 
There are three grades of enamel, and 
various colors. All the good grades of white 
enamel have at least two coats and frequently 
three, while the best is made with four coats 
of the enamel on a sheet iron or steel base. 
The agate is the most durable of the different 
kinds available. 
Enamel ware is a safe choice for such 
utensils as tea kettles and coffee pots, water 
kettles, frying pans, double boilers, asparagus 
or fish boilers and ham boilers; and for the 
oven, cake, bread, muffin, pie, pudding and 
meat pans. 
Tinned and Aluminum Ware 
■■ 
Tinned ware is still popular in spite of the 
advent of newer materials. It has many ad¬ 
vantages. As it conducts the heat rapidly, 
there is little danger of scorching food. It is 
inexpensive. Tinned ware has a base of 
sheet iron or steel and is coated with tin. A 
single coating makes the cheaper ware. 
' Blocked” tin or ‘ffietilined” ware is dipped 
several times. 
The most attractive of all materials and the 
most durable is aluminum. It endures the 
heat and wears bet¬ 
ter than enamel, 
iron or tin. It is 
a splendid con¬ 
ductor, twice as 
good as tin and 
three times as good 
as iron. It takes 
more heat at first 
to heat aluminum, 
but once it is heat¬ 
ed it retains the 
heat, and in the 
ordinary cooking 
processes, after the 
first heating, the 
gas or electricity 
may be diminished 
at least one-half. 
This means a sav¬ 
ing of fuel and the 
food is not so like¬ 
ly to scorch in this 
type of utensil be¬ 
cause the heat is 
evenly distributed. 
An aluminum cof¬ 
fee pot will keep 
that beverage hot 
longer than any 
other kind. 
Aluminum can 
endure the highest 
cooking tempera- 
For quick cooking, utensils made of mate¬ 
rials that are rapid conductors of heat are 
selected, such as aluminum or tin; for the 
slower processes, enamel or iron. Porcelain, 
earthenware and glass are another story. 
It is just as important to select the right 
size as the proper material. If too small a 
pan is used, the fuel that extends beyond the 
edge of the pan is wasted; while if the pan is 
too large, the food is likely to scorch in the 
center unless stirred constantly. 
Shape is important, too. Evaporation takes 
place more rapidly in a pan that flares at the 
top than in one with straight sides, because 
there is more surface exposed to the air. There¬ 
fore soup should be made in a straight-sided 
kettle and food to 
be boiled rapidly in 
one with flaring 
sides. In addition 
to these are the 
pans designed for 
special foods, as 
asparagus or corn 
boilers, fish and 
ham kettles. 
Steamers, of which this is a section, come 
in two parts, making possible the cooking 
of two vegetables simultaneously 
Methods of Cooking 
Before consider¬ 
ing the various 
materials of which 
utensils are fash¬ 
ioned, it will be 
wise to enumerate 
the different meth¬ 
ods of cooking 
food. The most 
primitive comes 
first — broiling — 
where the cooking 
is done directly 
over the flame. 
Roasting, baking 
and braising re¬ 
quire pans that are 
able to stand great 
heat, for the food 
is cooked by the 
heated metal sur¬ 
faces. 
An assortment of modern utensils shows a small cast aluminum preserving kettle, an aluminum 
griddle that needs no greasing a copper saucepan and lid tin lined, a double steaming boiler of 
aluminum, double waffle iron and generous aluminum kettle 
